


So tell me when it's time

by MPhoenix7



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Except for the kitten, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Multi, Pining, Polyamory, The Author Regrets Everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 04:16:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12951099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MPhoenix7/pseuds/MPhoenix7
Summary: So you’re telling  me that you believe that people die and come back partially invisible just to drop tubes of tooth paste but you don’t believe that people can love more than one person at the same time?





	So tell me when it's time

**Author's Note:**

> I just can't look at this fic on my drive anymore, so I posted it. Comments are always great! Sorry Shane, Ryan and Sara, I hope you guys never read this. Title and lyrics from Green Day - "When it's time"

_“Words get trapped in my mind_

_  
_ _Sorry I don't take the time to feel the way I do”_

 

        Ryan wasn’t ready for this. He really wasn’t.

 

        Last friday night the Test Friends were filming in a bar, something that mixed pseudo-science and booze and would definitely give them a lot of views. Zach would stay to work as cameraman and, after that, drive them home and absolutely send a few snapchats that would come back to bite them all in the ass later. This being a good opportunity to celebrate the end of an very exhausting week and laugh at their friends expenses, a few other people from the office decided to go too. Sara, among them.

 

        It was about 1 am when Zack Evans and Quinta called it a night, Sara joining them saying that she was going too and heading for the door after the goodbyes were said. A few moments later Shane tripped over a non-existent step for the second time in five minutes, and that’s when he realized that maybe he should ask her to take his cell phone with, as he was probably going to lose it at some point between the next shots and his not-so-great attempts of dancing, so he and Ryan went out running in the hopes of talking to her before she entered in the car, but they didn’t see Sara entering _her_ car. They saw Sara entering a _man_ ’s car, after giving him a quick peck.

 

        Ryan was shocked, to say the least, and wondered if he was drunk enough to hallucinate. Sara and Shane seemed like a great couple, their humor was a match, they were both really smart and they just clicked, you know? He turned to Shane but it was too dark too see his expression. He froze, and kinda felt like it was happening to _him._ What do you do when that happens to your best friend? What do you even say? Ryan thought about his friendly break up with Helen a  few months before, and he was glad it all happened the way it did, without any broken trust. He remembered about how happy he was when he and Helen still kept in touch, the six-ish years of convivence being stronger than the end of the relationship and wondered how Shane was going to manage being in the office with Sara there, his drunk brain thinking way too much and jumping to a lot of conclusions in the instant they both stood there. Whatever stupid thing he was going to say, though, was spared when Eugene came running a little nervous.

 

        “Hey guys, I think it would be best for you to go back inside. Jen is throwing up in the bathroom and I don’t think she’s really well.”

 

        Shane promptly walked back in, with Ryan by his side. The smaller man’s tentative of walking in a straight line while matching Shane’s strode took all of his concentration in the short path to the back door of the poorly illuminated bar. For the rest of the night, between taking care of Jen and wrapping the shoot, they didn’t have the time to talk about what happened in the parking lot.

 

_“'Cause the first day you came into my life_

_  
_ _My time ticks around you”_

 

        Now it was Monday morning and Ryan spent the whole weekend thinking about what he would say to Shane, but nothing was good enough. _“Sorry your girlfriend is cheating on you, man. Excited to see some ghosts today?”_ didn’t feel quite right.

 

        Before he could make up something a little less socially awkward thing to say - something that maybe in a insomniac wednesday 5 years from now wouldn’t make him be embarrassed at 2 a.m. by the reminder of saying it- Shane opened the passenger door  holding two cups of tea and occupied the seat by Ryan’s side.

 

        “‘Morning! So, do you think today is the day a demon will take out my left femur and make me choke on it?”

 

        So… Shane was pretending nothing happened. That’s cool. That’s great. He could go with that. Ryan took the cup Shane was offering and quickly replied:

 

        “First of all, we’re not going somewhere with a demon infestation today. But I do hope that happens someday, just so you can literally choke on your wrong beliefs. Also, have you seen how freakishly long your leg is? The only thing capable of taking your left femur is Lucifer himself.”

 

        “Oh Little Guy, you do realise your notion of size is completely fucked up, right? You’re like a chihuahua. Everything is big for a chihuahua. That’s why you and chihuahuas are always scared of everything and shaki-”

 

        Ryan rolled his eyes so hard he wouldn’t be surprised if he saw his brain.

 

_“Shut up, Shane.”_

 

        Shane laughed and drank his tea, like he does when he doesn’t have a great comeback but wants to look cool anyways or he just managed to be really annoying. Ryan wheezed and started the engine, leaving LA for the three-and-something hour long trip to a haunted house.

 

        The trip was easy, as it always was with Shane. Their friendship was based on trust and banter and popcorn and movies and work, and it worked out just fine. Maybe a little more than fine, as Ryan imagined their friendship was one of the reasons Hellen said he needed to figure things out when they broke up, and he didn’t deny it. It was almost two hours later when Shane said something that brought the subject back on what he was trying to avoid.

 

        “Have you seen the new Blade Runner?”

 

        “Not yet, didn’t really have the time, so I’m just running from spoilers online you know.”

 

        “Yeah, the real Neo from Matrix, just dodging those bullets, aren’t ya?” he kept going before Ryan had a chance of a real comeback “ _Anyways_ , I watched it this weekend and man, I _really_ liked it. I thought it was maybe a little bit too long, but it was _good_! Sara said it was maybe her favorite, after the first one.”

 

        So, Shane went to the movies with Sara. Was it _this_ easy? To be forgiven by Shane Madej? The bigger guy’s heart was way too big for his own good, way bigger than he would ever admit. The bitter sweetness of the thought was unwelcome but he couldn’t say he was surprised by it. Whereas he would never want his best friend to go through the pain of the end of a relationship if he could avoid it, Ryan also couldn’t selfishly help but think that he wanted to be the one to go see the next Blade Runner with Shane, share popcorn and disagree with all of his theories just for the sake of it, before admitting that _yes, he had a point, but wouldn’t it be so much cooler if Ryan’s theories were true._ The mere possibility of it made him get too lost in the daydreaming, the jealousy he had no right to have came in a big wave and the next phrase was out of his mouth before he could stop it:

 

        “I’m glad you guys are okay, you know. After Friday.”

 

        Shane looked at him very confused, frown forehead and eyes searching for an explanation like the little guy just said the Sun was actually a big teddy bear and that was just known fact. It was a few very silent moments of awkwardness before Ryan’s felt a kick in  the guts when he realised that maybe Shane was drunk enough to forget about that guy in the parking lot and _oh boy_ did Ryan just fuck things up in a gigantic way by telling him about it now, like an asshole, on a road trip, in a fit of non contained jealousy.

 

        Before Ryan could start the biggest apology of his life, admit that he was an idiot and that it was none of his business and the timing was the worst and _did he say that he was an idiot already?_ Shane seemed to finally connect the dots and remember about friday night and _he started laughing_. Head-thrown-back, tears-coming-out-of-his-eyes, laughing. It was a while (in which Ryan was really confused and frozen in place) before the older man could control himself enough to actually be able to talk without burst in laughter again.

 

        “So”  he said, pausing to laugh a little bit more “is _that_ why you’ve been acting so weird this whole trip, man?” he took a few tears from out of his eyes  “I thought you ate something weird, but _nooooo_ , you were walking on eggshells because you thought I was heartbroken?! Oh my God, Ry, with all the death threats and you telling me to shut up all the time, one might think you didn’t care about me!”

 

        Ryan didn’t think he could get any more confused but it’s been a long time now that Shane Madej made him surprise himself on a regular basis. He probably looked very tiny and very lost in that carseat if Shane finally took enough pity on him to actually stop laughing and explain himself.

 

        “He’s name is Brendon. With an ‘E’, not an ‘A’ like the hotdog Brandon, although he did give me the idea to the flash forward that one time. He and Sara have been dating for seven months now, or something like that. He’s a great guy, and yes, I do know about their relationship and therefore _no_ , I’m not heartbroken about any of it. It’s all good, man.  You can stop talking to me like I’m gonna break. “

 

        Shane explained it like it was something so simple, so common. He explained it like someone would explain something really obvious to a child, which made Ryan feel kind of stupid about it all. He lost his weekend thinking about it, and now his friend treats the subject like they were talking about the weather.

 

        The younger man couldn’t say that he understood how that worked, not really. He obviously knew that kind of arrangement existed but never put any real thought about it because it didn’t feel like a proper relationship to him. He grew up with both parents, who had been married for decades, and just the thought of a stranger in that relationship made him cringe. Going back to his longest relationship, he also couldn’t take it really well the thought of Helen seeing someone else while being with him. It felt wrong and it felt like it devalued a couple’s relationship and _how the hell could someone ever deal with their partner leaving their home and knowing they would go be with someone else? That’s just insane. How can she do that to Shane, the guy that was obviously head over heels in love with her? His best friend?_

 

        His train of thoughts was probably very visible in his face, because Shane just gave a tired sigh.

 

        “She likes me, so she’s with me. She likes Brendon too, so she’s with him too. That’s it, it’s hardly rocket science. But come on, ask away, Ryan. Whatever you’re thinking, is better just to say it now than look at me like _that_ for this whole trip.”

 

        Shane Madej was not the kind of guy who would say something like that if he didn’t mean it, so Ryan didn’t lose any more time.

 

        “How can you do that? How can you _deal_ with that, dude? Sara being with someone else, I mean. I know that it’s none of my business and please tell me to fuck off if you want me to, but I can’t imagine how that could ever work.”

 

        Shane looked halfway confused with Ryan’s reactions but he was clearly doing his best to actually answer.

 

        “What do you mean, man?”

        Now he was irritated at his friend’s condescending tone, like he was a fucking child that didn’t understand something quite simple, so he quickly repeated “How do you deal with that? You’ve been with her for years, and now she’s dating someone else. It can’t be easy.”

 

        Shane looked at him and for a moment Ryan couldn’t identify what that meant. There was something there, something they didn’t really talk about, something that had been there for months, a look that was tired of trying, tired of showing something and not being recognized. A look that came often too late at night after a marathon of really bad movies and they saying that if you eat enough popcorn then that’s a meal, right after Shane saying that he would call for an Uber and Ryan never stopping him, even if he wanted to.

 

_“All I want is you to understand_

_That when I take your hand_

_It's 'cause I want to”_

 

        Thing is: the bets were way too high. There _was_ maybe a chance that Shane’s feelings for Ryan were not completely platonic, but the chance that ruining their friendship if Ryan ever made an unwanted move was not worth it. Nothing was worth not having Shane in his life, nothing was worth losing that infuriating skeptic, who mocked him for his beliefs but was willing to sleep in awful places with him anyway. Who listened to every audio, answered to every late night text, even if only to say the evidence was bullshit. Who made fun of him about his pronunciation but every time the joke got too real he said that the word was weird it wasn’t really Ryan’s fault. Having Shane calling him his best friend would have to be enough, because in the end of the day he knew the big guy would be there for him, even if not exactly how Ryan really wanted him to.

 

        “You have more friends besides me, but we are still friends. My parents had my brother and loved him, and when I was born they loved me too, but they didn’t love my brother any less because of me. Romantic love is just a different kind of love but it’s love nonetheless, and there’s no reason whatsoever to think that it’s a darn slowflake and that it works so differently that it has to be exclusive.” his eyes met Ryan’s when he next spoke, looking like he had had that conversation with people a million times already “Don’t tell me that you believe that people die and come back partially invisible just to drop tubes of toothpaste but you don’t believe that people can love more than one person at the same time?”

 

        It was very difficult to argue with that logic. So Ryan just gave it a “whatever works for you, man” and a shrug, which Shane seemed to think was good enough since the topic somehow changed to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how they couldn’t possibly make a movie with sixty-something heroes work. Shane was always a man with little faith, and the conversation was kept in a light banter for the rest of the trip.

 

~ * ~

 

        It took a few months and a lot of time spent on google for Ryan actually come to terms with the thought of an open relationship (polyamory?) and stop resenting Sara for doing that to Shane, which he really shouldn’t because he was not in that said relationship and it had nothing to do with him, no matter how much he might want to.

 

        A lot of things started to make sense, though. Sara’s rides home, their empty apartment in the movie marathon nights. Ryan even met Brendon and he was indeed a very nice guy (or maybe it was the fact that he complimented on Ryan’s Lakers shirt, who knows), but he also understood why they kept the fact lowkey (if Ryan, who was proud to say he worked on an open-minded firm, said stupid shit out of pure ignorance when Shane told him about it, he couldn’t imagine the comments online). When Sara came by to say goodbye to Shane and go to her date night with her other boyfriend, Ryan’s smile to her as he said his goodbye was genuine. Also, Shane would watch a movie with him tonight, so it just worked out for everyone.

 

        Ryan drove them both to Shane’s apartment, and started calling the pizza place while his friend chose the movie on Netflix, the easiness of it all being welcome after a long day of editing. By now Shane’s place was very familiar to him, and he moved to his usual spot on the couch, making himself comfy and waiting for the movie, but already knowing he would fall asleep before it got to the end. He woke up the next day to the smell of pancakes and found himself with a very warm blanket carefully put over him, a reminder of how much the big guy cared, even if the first thing Ryan heard in the morning was the very mocking tone of Shane saying “Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty. You know that the ghost’s _very clear_ voices aren’t gonna subtitle themselves, right? You got a lot of work to do today, so chop-chop!”

 

~ * ~

_“We are all born in a world of doubt_

_And there's no doubt_

_I figured out”_

 

        Shane always brought Ryan a cup of coffee when he made one for himself, and he got it right every time since they were interns and he saw how the little guy liked, which made Ryan happier than he should. In that thursday afternoon, it was no different, except that maybe their hands touched for a little longer when Ryan went for the cup. He said to himself that it meant nothing and just asked Shane if they would still watch the basketball game at his place this tonight, like they had done for the past three months or so.

 

        Ryan made popcorn for them, knowing Shane would come by very soon. The guy had a key to his apartment by now, because it was way easier for them, considering how often they would forget things at their places before work or a trip for Unsolved. What he didn’t expect is seeing Sara in his kitchen.

 

        He got startled, to say the least, but thank God he didn’t gave one of his _oh-my-God-I-just-saw-a-ghost_ screams. Sara laughed at him anyway, but moved her head to indicate the box she was holding “Shane said he promised to lend you his comics. There are a few boxes of them, though, so when I came to drop him by he asked for my help. Sorry I startled you. Where do I put these?”

 

        Ryan’s pride made him make a shitty excuse about how he did not get startled, and she just smiled following him in the direction of his living room. Shane, however, being the asshole that he is couldn’t help himself “Can you imagine if she, I don’t know, dropped a tube of toothpaste, Ry? Imagine us having to explain to your parents the cause of your fatal heart attack, it would be _so awkward_.” Ryan took advantage that Shane had his hands full and therefore couldn’t not retaliate when he threw a cushion in his general direction. He big guy just smiled and said he was going to get the last box in the car.

 

        Sara stayed behind, however. Ryan didn’t exactly know what to say without sounding like he was telling her to get out of his house - he _didn’t_ want to tell her to get out of his house, she was a very nice person, but they didn’t have much to talk about when Shane wasn’t around-, so he started remembering what he had in the fridge that was under the expiration date and that he could possibly offer her and be the polite host. _That cold tea was still good, wasn’t it? Did she even drink tea?_

 

        When the sounds of Shane footsteps couldn’t be heard in the hallway anymore, though, she suddenly became all business “You know I actually like you, don’t you? You’re passionate and a hard-worker and a great friend for him” Ryan was caught off guard by that. _Where was going on?_

 

        He continued “So listen to me, ‘cause I’m only saying this once: if you want anything, do something, because he won’t. And if you, for some reason, don’t treat him right, I will _crush you_ , got it?”

 

        God, Sara was even shorter than him, and had purple hair and was the sweetest girl ever and maybe that’s what terrified Ryan enough to actually start to stutter “I-I… y-you got i-it.”

 

        When Shane appeared in this doorstep again with the comics, Ryan looked like he saw a ghost, whereas Sara just gave him a kiss on the cheek and wished them a good time watching the game.

 

        He would have judged Sara insane for that - _he shouldn’t do something should he? Shane didn’t like him like that, did he? Did he talk to Sara about it?_ \- , but he couldn’t really come with an good explanation for when Shane said in the Unsolved live Q+A, two weeks after that, that he didn’t really care about sports. He was even more at a lost when Shane continued going to his place after that, but was glad for the company anyway.

 

_“And I feel lonely for_

_All the losers that will never take the time to say_

_What was really on their mind instead_

_They just hide away”_

 

~ * ~

 

        It took awhile, but Ryan finally thought about the perfect way to tell Shane his feelings. How to make it look serious but also giving their friendship a way to be saved if Shane didn’t like him back like that. The way that would least affect Unsolved, too. He just needed the perfect timing now, but the younger man was sure it wouldn’t take more than a couple of days for the opportunity present itself.

 

        Like on various things in his life, though, Ryan was very, very, wrong.

 

        In the years of their friendship, Ryan got mad at Shane Madej many, many times. It was mostly not serious, thought. Shane’s stubbornness, Shane’s inability to _not_ make fun of him, Shane’s very rude ways to talk to ghosts, Shane’s never resting sarcasm. But it was never like _this_.

 

        When they went camping to try and see weird looking lights in the sky in a very small town a couple hours away from Los Angeles, it all looked very normal. Pacific, even, which made them tell the crew to go and sleep on the hotel, that they would film their overnight themselves and  had a cellphone with good reception if something happened. There was no need for more people to have their asses freezed in the night and back pains in the morning, right?

 

        In the end, there was need. There was a big, enormous, gigantic  need of a crew with them, because he underestimated just how _stupid_ Shane could actually be when he put effort into it.

 

        Who, in their right mind, hears sounds on the woods at night and decides to wander alone to see what’s about? People who die first in horror movies and _Shane Alexander Madej_ , that’s who.

 

        Shane screams woke Ryan up. They had fallen asleep after three in the morning, no funny lights seen. Now it was 4:24, according to the cellphone, and he couldn’t see Shane but he could hear his unrestrained screaming, voice modified by what sounded like pain, and Ryan’s heart had never beaten so fast and his hands had never trembled more, but he didn’t waste a second being scared of whatever was out there in the woods, because finding Shane was imperative, a necessity so big that his brain didn’t let him think of any other alternative other than bringing his tall, idiotic friend back, safe and sound. He would kick Sallie’s and the Goatman’s asses in a fraction of a second if they got in his way tonight.

 

        It was hard to follow the sound and Ryan realised that trying to scream back was only making it harder, the woods already being very dark and having few spaces between the trees. He tripped and fell more than once before his eyes got accustomed to the dim lightning of his failing flashlight, getting back at his feet with no complaining because the scratches in his hands and knees were nothing and didn’t hold a single bit of importance for him in that moment.

 

        He had prayed for every god whose name he ever heard of or found in one of his late night researches. _Please,_ he thought, _please, just let me find him. I doesn’t even matter if he doesn’t like me back, I don‘t give a fuck. I don’t give a fuck if next week he leaves Unsolved and Buzzfeed and me and moves to another continent and I never see him again, if only he’s okay. Please, let him be okay._

 

        It took him almost twenty minutes of frenetic search to find Shane, the longest twenty minutes of his life. His friend was found sitting on the end of a very steep part of the ground, hair disheveled and dirty on his skin and clothes, right foot very clearly swollen and holding a very skinny kitten who somehow was even dirtier and looked even worse than him.

 

        The first minute after Ryan found Shane all he felt was the biggest relief in his life. Relief that his friend was alive and somewhat well (Shane said his foot was most probably broken), and while he helped the older man he thanked to all the gods, laughing without meaning to, with happy tears in his eyes and feeling more alive than he felt in years.

 

        After that, though, his brain processed what Shane’d been saying.

 

        “Wait, what? You heard the noise and _‘decided to investigate’?”_ oh boy, did the anger came out fast from wherever it was hiding before too “without _telling me_ , without _taking your phone_ with you, without anything whatsoever planned in case the sound was _anything else_ other than a cat?!”

 

        Shane looked like a kid who got caught doing something it was not supposed to, but boy, he never knew when to stop talking. “There’s no one here, Ryan! This town is so small it probably doesn’t even show up in maps or something, what were the chances that-”

 

        “That you would fall and break something? Because guess what, _asshole_ ” he was screaming now, and his brain knew it wasn’t the best course of action because while he had texted the crew to get medical assistance already, Shane was still in pain, but he couldn’t stop himself “It happened! And it could have been worse! You could have broken your neck, you could have stumbled upon a fucking _serial killer_ for all I know, and then what, Shane? Then what? Then you _die_ . What about your family then? And Sara, what about her, Shane? What about _me?_ I spent the last weeks thinking about telling you I liked you but I could never think that you needed to learn basic stuff first, like how not to get yourself killed for being _just too idiotic and trying to be the hero and save a stupid cat!_ ”

 

        The kitten probably didn’t like being called stupid, or didn’t like his tone, or was just very hungry, but he made a annoyed noise that brought Ryan back to reality enough to make him shut up, close his eyes and try to calm his breathing, not even realising what he had said. When he opened his eyes again, Shane was looking still in pain but there was something else there. Confusion? Hope? Relief? A mix of all of the above, maybe.

 

        The paramedics came very fast (the town could be target for aliens but at least the health service was good, it seemed), and all Shane said during the trip to the hospital was assurances that _yes, he was okay_ , and mocking over the fact that he would live and Brent wouldn’t get a chance to come back to the show so soon. Ryan gave him only a half hearted laugh at that, though, the pain badly hidden in Shane’s voice making him concerned again. When he realised that he had made a love declaration in the midst of the chaos, Shane was already recovering from surgery and the fear of not being loved back wasn’t as big as it was before that night begun.

 

_“Yet they'll never have_

_Someone like you to guard them_

_And help along the way”_

 

        Apparently Shane didn’t do anything lightly, including breaking his feet, and his recovery would take longer than usual because _why only break a couple bones when you can break a lot of them, right?,_ so he took a break from work and only three weeks after that their feelings became focus again, when he and his red flannel (and his crutches) were waiting for Ryan outside the office in the end of the afternoon. He looked a lot better from when Ryan visited him at his apartment just two days ago, maybe because the doctor finally cleared him to walk outside his house, maybe because he had a smile on his face.

 

        “So, did Sara finally kicked you of the house? It took her long enough, you know, you were in such a bad mood for this past weeks that  I would’ve kicked you out way sooner. Actually, I would’ve kicked you out the moment you named the cat Gene. Poor cat, he lived through a lot already, he didn’t deserve this.”

 

        Shane wheezed but didn’t let go of the joke “Oh, Bergara, you wished you were the creator of such an intricate and complex character such as Gene. My cat feels honoured every time he reads his name of his food bowl.”

 

        It said a lot of their friendship that even though that it was they said, they both knew that it wasn’t what they meant. Ryan sat with him on the bench and they spent a few moments on the comfortable silence of each other’s presence, the day being way too nice and needing to be fully appreciated.

 

        “So”, Shane’s tone was quiet and shy after what seemed like way too soon and way too long at the same time “I actually planned to give you flowers before I said this to you, but I only remembered to buy them after the Uber driver had already left and I had already sat here, and boy, it’s a bitch to walk around with these things” he vaguely pointed to the crutches resting on the bench on his other side “so I will get a raincheck on that today.”

 

        Ryan laughed at Shane’s bluntness, something he loved and hated at the same time and wouldn’t change for anything, because it was something that made Shane be Shane and he was just perfect. His friend joined him and _boy,_ did he look good on the afternoon sun, but Ryan didn’t comment on that. He never commented on that, which didn’t mean he didn’t think about it, exhaustively.

 

        Shane was a man-with-a-mission, however, and nothing could stop him “I like you, little guy. Have for a long while, now. I made a mistake to think that it was very obvious for everyone and that if you didn’t do anything about it then it was your polite way to say you didn’t like me back but wanted to keep our friendship, and I was somewhat glad for that. It was only in that forest that I felt guilty for not telling you this sooner and I’m glad you were brave enough for both of us.”

 

        The smile Ryan gave him was maybe one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen, and he couldn’t help but smile back, the sincere smile he only gave the people he loved. When Ryan reached for his hand it felt so right he couldn’t help but think he was a fool for not doing it before, but again, he was a fool for a very long time, from pretending this feelings were not there, to lying to himself, to denying it to his girlfriend, to accepting a defeat that never existed.

 

        “You owe me flowers, Madej. And chocolates. But for now, we will settle for movies and popcorn at my place, what do you think about that?”

 

        Shane nodded, his eyes never leaving Ryan’s and what felt like the biggest smile on his face, letting the little guy lead the way to where his car was parked.

 

        When they inevitably got struck in the LA’s traffic, he found himself texting Sara a “thank you” message, before intertwining his fingers with Ryan’s again.

 

_“So tell me when it's time to say I love you”_

**Author's Note:**

> How 'bout a little comment, my young padawan?  
> Also, if you want to say hi on tumbr, you'll find me on http://i-am-ghost-proof-baby.tumblr.com/


End file.
